Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

A Thanksgiving Tale of How Property Rights Saved America
Townhall.com ^ | November 30, 2013 | Daniel J. Mitchell

Posted on 11/30/2013 4:59:44 AM PST by Kaslin

The genius of capitalism is that there is a link between effort and reward. In a genuine market economy (as opposed to cronyism), people can only make themselves rich by working harder and smarter to satisfy the needs and wants of others.

The blunder of statism is that the link between effort and reward is damaged. Punitive tax rates, for instance, punish people for producing. Redistribution programs, meanwhile, create incentives for dependency. And regulation throws lots of sand in the gears of the economy, while also creating big opportunities for corrupt cronyism.

I sometimes try to make this clear by citing the failure of communism. And by failure, I’m not talking about the brutality of Soviet-style dictatorships. Instead, I’m referring to the basic failure of state-controlled economies. Heck, places such as Cuba and Venezuelacan’t even produce enough toilet paper!

And North Korea is such a basket case that it reduced physical requirements for military service after pervasive famine led to a stunted generation.

But I don’t want anyone to accuse me of red-baiting, so let’s pretend communism never existed and look at an unfortunate episode from American history.

When the colonists created the Plymouth Colony, they used a socialist model. This video from Reason TV explains how that system foundered.

The Pilgrims and Property Rights: How our ancestors got fat & happy

Gee, what a surprise. Socialism was the problem and capitalism was the solution. When you give people property rights and establish a clear link between effort and reward, good things happen.

As Bono now understands. More remarkable, even Obama once said we should “let the market work.” So maybe there’s hope.

In honor of the season, let’s share a few more Thanksgiving cartoons, all of which – as you might expect – make fun of Obamacare.

Continuing a theme from some of yesterday’s cartoons, we have the Turkey of the Year.

TG II Cartoon 1

And an observation on how well the law is working.

TG II Cartoon 2

This Lisa Benson cartoon is very appropriate since the Mayflower carried the first colonists to Plymouth.

TG II Cartoon 3

P.S. I don’t want to pass up this opportunity for some well-deserved mockery of the evil philosophy of communism,. You can see some great Reagan jokes in thefourth video of this link and the first video in this link. And this doctored imagemakes a very powerful point in an amusing fashion.

P.P.S. Back in 2010, I also debunked the leftist counter-argument in a post that included the Reason video and a John Stossel column on the topic of the Pilgrims and property rights.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: capitalism; privateproperty; propertyrights

1 posted on 11/30/2013 4:59:44 AM PST by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Seems that dysfunctional socialist ideas were nothing new. The failed turkey of an experiment didn’t wait for Marx.

The bible puts it positively: the worker is worth his wages. That is a gospel principle. It’s when men try to cheat the gospel principle that “socialist” woes come, and the real man behind the curtain is, of course, not “society” (most of whom privately grumble about the privations) but a nanny government which in turn is driven by Satan.


2 posted on 11/30/2013 5:09:34 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

A second gospel principle is charity from the heart. This can NOT be legislated, by its very nature. Charity needs to be cheerful. It is a glad sharing in a specific constructive work that goes above and beyond earnings. What Joe might cheerfully give, Jane might not be in a position to equal (or conversely for all we know, she might be in a position to beat it). Only Joe and Jane know what those points are. Charity should never, ever be denigrated. But it should always be tied to being voluntary. The government of today is expecting “tithes” and even in a Christian context that would be a legalism.


3 posted on 11/30/2013 5:16:28 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I mean, over and above earnings of the beneficiary.


4 posted on 11/30/2013 5:17:10 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Anyhow... it was God that saved America.

“Property rights” are a characteristic of heaven. Heaven has sharing, but one has to have something TO share and a choice of WHETHER to share it, before one can share it in love. Something that is literally “owned by all” is owned by nobody. Souls are left floundering and there is no room for love under a “forced communal property” model. The way the early church had “everything in common” was through a donation model, and even the donations had to be sincerely intended and were never forced. They were not meant to be for show, as Ananias and Sapphira found at the cost of dying at the hands of God when they kept something (which was perfectly permissible — perhaps they might donate it in the future) and bragged that they hadn’t (which was a lie and thus evil).


5 posted on 11/30/2013 5:27:38 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

“Instead, I’m referring to the basic failure of state-controlled economies.”

There are two kinds of capitalism that exist. One is state-controlled and the other is individual free enterprise.


6 posted on 11/30/2013 5:28:51 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; me = independent conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Pre-16th and 17th Amendments, the Constitution generally protected ALL property, including our inalienable rights.

As intended, the progressive 16th and 17th Amendments provided the means to ravish property.

With apologies to Bastiat, plunder of the few by the many in 21st century America is an unwritten right.

An Article V amendment convention to reverse course is our only possible hope.

7 posted on 11/30/2013 5:44:07 AM PST by Jacquerie (To restore the 10th Amendment, repeal the 17th.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jacquerie

I think you mean, to ravage property. To ravish a property requires chattel slavery... (duck’n & runn’n!)


8 posted on 11/30/2013 5:47:41 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Jacquerie
An Article V amendment convention to reverse course is our only possible hope.

One can endlessly fret about the vessels when there is no content for them. Without a sea change in spiritual tone, such a convention would be politicked pro-actively without mercy by our dear lefties, while righties would be sitting around going "DUH!" in their all too currently normal reactive mode.

What we need is a good EVANGELISM. There are so many possible doors for introducing Christian faith to the great unwashed that go way beyond the traditional church model. By happy "accident" (of course nothing is accidental in God's creation, but I speak figuratively) the America of 1776 was heavily peopled with men of great private faith, at least in the bible if not in explicit Christianity. Christians and others with a distinct biblically based point of view found a place in the New World to get away from entrenched, established-church-centered European religion that had become a pride thing rather than a God thing.

9 posted on 11/30/2013 5:54:38 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
The genius of capitalism is that there is a link between effort and reward.

I think it imperative to mention "risk" also when relating capitalism with effort and reward. 2 cents.

10 posted on 11/30/2013 5:55:55 AM PST by VRW Conspirator (Obama is a proven liar, an admitted liar, an unrepentent liar.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: VRW Conspirator

This is always the case in an erring, sinful world.

Mistakes get made. People then have a choice of what to do with the mistakes. Try to learn something, or keep on being bull headed in the mistakes.


11 posted on 11/30/2013 6:00:59 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
...Redistribution programs...

And another thing. "Redistribution" is a communist's contrivance. As if the wealth I have was "distributed" to me, unjustly according to the commies, and therefore must be re-distributed, justly according to the ones who know best.

12 posted on 11/30/2013 6:02:25 AM PST by VRW Conspirator (Obama is a proven liar, an admitted liar, an unrepentent liar.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck
Well, you sent me to my 1969 American Heritage Dictionary.

Its second definition of ravish is to rape, deflower or violate.

That was my intended use of the word.

13 posted on 11/30/2013 6:07:27 AM PST by Jacquerie (To restore the 10th Amendment, repeal the 17th.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Jacquerie

Just being humorous here Jac.

I think ravish = violate in the second sense still carries a sexual connotation. Well it does create a means to eff with America, if one must use such terminology.

Anyhow, God still reserves the last laugh for Himself. And for His willing team.


14 posted on 11/30/2013 6:14:12 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck
such a convention would be politicked pro-actively without mercy by our dear lefties...

I welcome this. Let them come, and join the current 26-state kickoff on December 7. The more the merrier. The bulk of the states propose amendments that limit term limits and government, and the lefties propose to abolish the second amendment. Great!

Then those amendments go thru the state legislatures, and only those that get by 3/4 of them are ratified. One state one vote!


15 posted on 11/30/2013 6:17:37 AM PST by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Jacquerie

Hell, I think, will be a laughing stock for God.

It’s our choice whether we will also make it a laughing stock for America.

Hell is what happens when obstinate, never-repentant sinners “eff” with themselves by systematically rejecting God’s blessings in their self centeredness (which gets its direction from Satan’s self centeredness). God doesn’t even have to damn those sinners. They damn themselves and the final visit to the awful Throne only ratifies what they already asked for.

In general, the closer to a gospel model a government can facilitate a people to be, the better that government will be. Gospel gave rise to the America of 1776 that boldly claimed “No King but Jesus” and had the God and the gumption to make it stick. Perfect, it wasn’t. Chattel slavery was winked at when there was a golden opportunity to abolish it. But it still was a bold new direction.


16 posted on 11/30/2013 6:21:12 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: C210N

Remember however that state legislatures are now, by early 1960’s USSC court fiat, required to give representation by population count. The little blue zones will have more clout than you think in such a scenario. Gone is the time where a state could have a senate in which each county had one or two legislators, no matter how sparse or dense the county.

Nope... do the math and hang back and evangelize.


17 posted on 11/30/2013 6:23:33 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck

Roger that.


18 posted on 11/30/2013 6:31:22 AM PST by Jacquerie (To restore the 10th Amendment, repeal the 17th.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck
Yep. An unconstitutional Reynolds v. Sims, which imposed a 17th Amendment sister on the states, is why Chicago runs IL, the left coast runs CA, . . .

If Your State is a Mess.

19 posted on 11/30/2013 6:37:58 AM PST by Jacquerie (To restore the 10th Amendment, repeal the 17th.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck

Property rights are dead in the USA , we have numerous SC decisions to prove the point... and when you take into account that we have millions of properties that were insured by GNMA (Ginnie Mae) and have been stripped of their security (mortgage) leaving only the unsecured debt obligation being foreclosed upon by the hundreds of thousands with the governments permission by the wall street banks that created the mess in violation of centuries of property laws. Nobody can even say who owns the properties yet they are being gifted to JPM , WF , BAC and a dozen others.


20 posted on 11/30/2013 11:59:54 AM PST by Neidermeyer (I used to be disgusted , now I try to be amused.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson